


If At First the Crumb Fairy Doesn't Set, Try and Try Again

by soverysesual



Category: Great News (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-08 01:05:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13447248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soverysesual/pseuds/soverysesual
Summary: A glimpse into Katie and Greg's blossoming friendship and relationship, as told through their celebrations of St. Wiggin's Day throughout the years.  Or, five times Katie and Greg celebrate St. Wiggin's Day together.A more slow-burn AU than the show.  Starts to take place somewhere within the season 2 storyline.





	1. 2017

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, 
> 
> This is something I've actually been working on putting together since the end of season 1, so the story will be pretty AU, since season 2 has progressed a bit more quickly through Katie and Greg's relationship than I ever anticipated. I've rewritten a lot of it based on this season, but I also want them to be a little bit more of a slow burn than the actual show. I hope you enjoy.
> 
> P.S. All of my details about St. Wiggin's Day are completely random so please don't take it to seriously or judge it too harsh. :)

“Why are we going to Katie’s again?” Cat asked as they waited for the subway train to arrive.

“It’s St. Wiggin’s Day today. It’s a British holiday that’s a bit like American Thanksgiving - but with much less food,” Greg explained. “It’s essentially a family gathering with traditional meals. Katie felt bad that my family has essentially disowned me, especially after what happened this year with Gram, so she wanted to host the holiday and make me crumb fairy.”

“Wait," Cat said, looking into the bag he was holding, "isn’t that what we're bringing?"

“Crumb fairy is completely impossible to successfully make it on your first try. I’ve been trying to make it on my own since I moved here and it’s been a disaster,” Greg said, laughing.

They boarded the train and made it pretty quickly to Katie’s apartment.

“‘Ello,” Katie greeted in a rough British accent. Greg was already rolling his eyes. “Happy St. Wiggins Day, mates!”

Cat giggled and gave Katie a quick hug as she entered the apartment. Since Katie and Jeremy had started dating, the couples had gone on a series of double dates and had gotten a lot closer as a group.

Jeremy took their coats and Katie motioned towards the kitchen. Greg’s jaw dropped as he noticed all of the very specific St. Wiggin’s Day decorations that adorned almost every inch of the apartment. He could also smell some traditional dishes being cooked in the kitchen, aside from just the crumb fairy. Katie had clearly done her research and Greg had not been expecting it. She smiled as she noticed how shocked he was.

“I think you’re going to be pretty excited about what I’ve made,” she said eagerly to Greg. He chuckled.

“Oh really?” He asked knowingly, and she nodded.

“Just another thirty minutes left and the crumb fairy will be perfect and all homemade, just how you like it!” Katie beamed at him excitedly and smiled back, hoping that she would in fact surprise him by succeeding on the first try. 

With that they settled into a nice evening filled with wine and stories about different holiday traditions. Greg tried to explain to the three Americans exactly what St. Wiggin’s Day was all about, but eventually, after much confusion amongst the group, Jeremey shrugged it off as “too British to comprehend.” Katie, determined to make sure Greg felt like he was celebrating the holiday as he would at home, turned on what was considered a classic St. Wiggin’s Day film that she had tracked down on the internet, much to Greg's surprise. Soon however, they were no longer paying attention as they were all lost in a fit of giggles as the Americans in the room tried to figure out what the heck any of it meant. Katie then took the opportunity to go check on the food, and Greg joined her, feeling guilty that she had put together all of this and he had done almost nothing to help.

“It’s crazy to me how similar our cultures can be and yet so completely different at the same time,” Katie told Greg as she checked the temperature of the roast.

“You’re right. There are so many American traditions I’m still not getting used to. But I really appreciate all the effort you’ve put into this. You really didn’t have to,” he said quietly. She blushed a little but smiled.

“It’s really nothing! Friends are supposed to help you celebrate the things you care about, right?" Katie smiled and they shared a meaningful look, and Greg felt a bit of deja vu from the night they almost kissed in his office. The moment was broken by a timer going off.

“Ooh! That's the crumb fairy!” Katie exclaimed as she opened the fridge to check on it. Her face dropped almost immediately as she lifted the lid on the container. “Oh no...”

“It didn’t set, didn’t it,” Greg said, a smirk on his face as he reached for the bag he brought. She turned away from the fridge and frowned at him.

“I don’t understand! I followed every direction so carefully-“

“Doesn’t matter. I’ve tried to make it myself using every recipe I could find, and after about ten times I gave up entirely,” he explained. Greg held up the package of the store-bought crumb fairy. “Luckily, I always have a back up.”

Katie smiled sadly but nodded and began to serve the rest of the meal. Everything else turned out perfect, and even the store-bought crumb fairy (which was super weird at first to the Americans) was delicious, and they all polished off the savory gelatinous treat pretty quickly.

Cat and Greg then offered to clean up and they all hung out in the kitchen area, praising Katie for how good the meal was and already trying to come up with plans for the following year. The night wore on and soon enough Greg and Cat were ready to call it a night and head home. They said their goodbyes and Katie and Jeremy walked them to the door. 

Greg thanked Katie again for putting the evening together. She just shrugged, “It really was no trouble, though I’m so sorry I couldn’t get the crumb fairy right.” He laughed and hugged her.

“I appreciate that you even gave it a shot, really!” He said, pulling away from their embrace and grinning at her. "If you had made it successfully on your first try, I would've sworn you were a witch." She laughed this time and seemed to be less worried that her surprise hadn't turned out. With that, Cat and Greg wished Katie and Jeremy goodnight and ordered an Uber since it was late and they were both pretty buzzed. 

As they made their way back to Greg’s apartment, Cat cuddled up to him.

“That was so much fun,” she muttered sleepily. Greg hummed in agreement. “We should definitely do that every year. I'm so glad you and Katie are so close. I can't believe she did all that for you, isn't she just the sweetest thing?!"

“Yeah, she really is the best,” he replied in a weird tone that Cat picked up on. She smiled sadly up at him as he stared out the window. While Cat absolutely adored Katie, she had definitely noticed the connection between Greg and Katie all night. Cat had been wondering if Katie was more than just his "work wife" for awhile now, and tonight seemed to confirm her suspicions. She wondered if Greg had even figured out that he had feelings for Katie. Cat felt a little hurt, but she was glad that she noticed now, before things got more serious in their relationship. She was probably going to have to break up with him soon enough, but for now she was going to enjoy spending the rest of this little holiday with her boyfriend.


	2. 2018

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm already posting chapter 2 and this story is only like an hour old, but I'm so much happier with this one than my first chapter. Hope you enjoy it!

St. Wiggin’s Day was to be at Greg’s apartment this year, and since neither Katie and Greg were in serious relationships by the time the holiday rolled around again, it was just be the two of them. As of late, they were pretty much spending all of their free time together and their friendship was stronger than ever. When they weren’t doing research on a story or producing the show, they were seeing movies or sharing meals together, often including Carol and Dave. It wasn’t really dating (though if you asked Carol, she would completely disagree), especially since both of them had been seeing other people on and off over the last year. Still, they were easily spending more time with each other than they were with anyone else in their lives.

When St. Wiggin’s Day came around again Katie insisted on trying to make crumb fairy again. He didn’t tell her that he actually had some store bought kind as back up still; not because he didn’t have faith in her, but simply because he kept a pretty sizable stash year-round in case he got a craving for it. 

She arrived early in the day in some comfy clothes, ingredients in one tote bag, and another filled with her decorations from the previous year. First, they decorated the whole apartment together and started to cook everything, all the while Greg shared some stories from his childhood. Katie loved hearing the stories and trying to imagine a smaller version of Greg (which seemed impossible given how tiny he is), running around some sort of fancy British castle. Her thoughts quickly turned sad as she realized that he was now basically an outcast from his family.

“Don’t you miss seeing your family all the time?” she asked, not being able to comprehend how he had been able to just so easily leave everything behind, especially since she is so close with her own parents. Greg, however, didn’t seem all that bothered.

“For the first couple years I’ll admit it was hard, mostly because I didn’t really know anyone here in the States, and it was definitely a bit of culture shock. But now it’s not so bad; I'm used the culture and I have really great friends here that care about me. Plus, your parents have basically adopted me as their own, especially your mother, which has been really cool.” Katie’s eyes widened, not expecting that answer.

“Really? You don’t find my mom to be too much?” She was so used to the fact that her mom was often too mothering to the people in her life (usually her boyfriends), and they usually found Carol as something to avoid and not necessarily embrace.

“I mean yeah, she’s a little goofy and intense, but she certainly always means well. I don’t know," he said, shrugging, "you Wendelson’s are good at making me feel like I’ve found a home. It’s just, uh, really nice,” he muttered, focusing very intently on stirring the pot in front of him instead of making any sort of eye contact.

“Oh,” Katie said, blushing, not quite knowing how to react to the warm sensation this conversation was making her feel. “I’m... really glad you feel that way, and, uh, glad I can help,” she said shyly. Neither of them knew quite what to say for a few moments and then Katie laughed and broke the tension. “Just whatever you do, do not let Carol hear you say that, or she will drive you right to city hall or whatever and adopt you on the spot. You probably wouldn’t even have a say in the matter.” They both laughed and continued working on putting together the meal.

About an hour later, everything was just about finished, and the timer went off, which meant that the crumb fairy was ready. Katie cheered as she peeked into the fridge and saw that it had set this time.

“Oh my god, I think I did it!” She exclaimed, and Greg raised an eyebrow. Katie noticed his facial expression and smirked. “And you thought I couldn’t do it,”

“I’ve always believed you could do it!” He lied, and she just rolled her eyes at him. He grabbed a fork and she was practically bouncing up and down as he tried it. He took a pretty big forkful and put it in his mouth and...

It was absolutely terrible.

_Keep it together_ , _Gregorious_ , he thought to himself as he tried to swallow it and pretend that it tasted great. Katie knew him too well, however, and immediately knew something was wrong.

“God, you have the worst poker face. Is it that bad?” She asked, a hint of frustration in her voice as she reached to try some herself.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, trying to cover himself. “It’s delicious!” But Katie clearly wasn’t buying it. She took a bite and nearly spit it out instantly.

“UGH! What the heck happened?!” She cried, as she quickly ran to the sink to fill a glass of water. “How on earth did you manage to swallow that, good god!” Greg just shrugged.

“It legitimately tastes better than the last time I tried to make it myself,” he admitted, and soon they were both crying laughing over how crazy terrible his last try must’ve been. The rest of the meal, however, was as delicious as the year before.  They both carefully ate the store-bought crumb fairy Greg had already in his fridge, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong this year, but were still at a loss by the time they retired to the couch.

They then decided to watch a couple of Greg’s favorite St. Wiggin’s Day films that he kept in his apartment. Katie desperately tried to understand what was happening, but even with subtitles to help with some of the thicker accents, she still didn’t quite get the dry British humor Greg seemed to be so fond of. Halfway through the second movie, and after they polished off a bottle of wine and a half between them, she found herself curled up next to him and starting to dose off on his shoulder. He noticed her yawning and looked over at her.

“We can turn it off if you want,” he muttered, feeling bad for making her watch a movie she didn’t really get. Katie quickly shook her head and cuddled even more into him.

“No no no! I’m enjoying it, really!” She said while trying to stifle a yawn. He laughed and reached for the remote but she stopped him. “Leave it, it’s your favorite holiday, remember? I don’t want to be a buzzkill cause I’m wine-sleepy,” she said, sweetly.

Greg chuckled again, and then adjusted the blanket so that it was covering both of them. “If you say so,” he teased, and she nudged him back playfully.

And sure enough, only a couple minutes later she was snoring on his shoulder. He smiled as he turned the movie off, wondering if he should wake her to send her home so she could sleep in her own bed. However, the alcohol seemed to finally kick in for him, and before he could move to wake her, he too was asleep in an instant.

\---

Katie slowly woke up and before she even opened her eyes, realized very quickly that she wasn’t in her bed. For one thing, she was pretty sure she was on a couch, and for another thing she definitely smelled pancakes. She stretched and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and immediately realized that she had fallen asleep during the movie the night before, and was still in Greg’s living room. She looked over to the source of the pancake smell and noticed Greg was standing over at the stove in his pajamas, his hair still messy from sleep.

_Oh boy, I could get used to this_ , she mused, and immediately blushed at the thought. She moved to start to get up off the couch and he finally noticed she was awake.

“G’morning!” Greg said, his voice raspier than normal, which also made Katie blush even more as she realized how much more attractive it made him. “I hope you slept okay, and I hope you like chocolate chip pancakes.” Katie gasped as she made her way to his kitchen island to sit at the bar stool.

“Oh my god, am I in heaven right now?” she asked playfully. He laughed, thinking she was just excited about the food. He filled some plates with several pancakes, and they dug in.  Katie nearly melted at the first bite. “Holy crap, you’re gonna like have to move in with me or something, buddy, because these taste too good to be true.” Greg nearly choked on his orange juice at the suggestion, but smiled in understanding that she meant it a bit more casually than part of him hoped.

“Well, anytime you want me to come over and make you pancakes, you have my number.”

“Watch yourself, Gregorious. If you think I wouldn’t hold you to that, you’re out of your mind.”

“I think I know what I’m getting myself into," he said daringly, and they both beamed at each other. They continued to eat and Katie then cleaned up the dishes as a thank you, despite Greg’s protests.

“I guess I should head home, huh,” she said as she started to gather her things. Greg frowned when she wasn’t looking, realizing that he’d gotten so comfortable with her being there that he forgot she didn’t live there. He helped her gather up her stuff and walked her to the door. “This was so nice though,” she said as they both hovered in the doorway.

“Yeah, thanks for spending the holiday with me. It means a lot, you know,” he said sincerely. She smiled at him.

“Of course, it’s our tradition now right?” Katie asked, and he almost felt overwhelmed knowing that she enjoyed spending his favorite holiday with him.

They hugged each other, and this time it felt again like that night in his office, and this time he was pretty sure he was about to kiss her, but he stopped himself. He started to get all in his head about how their friendship was far too special to him, and he couldn’t put it all on the line in this moment just because he was happy to be with her. He cleared his throat, breaking the tension between them, and he couldn’t help but notice that she almost looked disappointed for a second.

“You’ll text me when you get back to your place safely?” he asked, and she smiled and nodded.

“Yes, _mother_ ,” she teased and he laughed. “See you at work tomorrow?”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

“You’re gonna let me produce the lead, right?”

“Only because you tried to make me crumb fairy.”

“Oh, but not because I’m you’re best journalist?” she teased.

“Definitely not because of that,” he said, sarcastically. She smiled and made her way towards the elevator in the hall. They each gave each other a little wave goodbye, and just like that she was gone, and Greg couldn’t help but wonder if he missed his chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. 2019

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! While we're hopefully on hiatus between seasons (I refused to believe it's over), I'm going to hopefully continue to add to this AU and make Katie and Greg a lot more of a slow-burn than the show ended up doing. I hope you enjoy what I've written so far and don't mind that I'm straying from the story. Anyways, I finally broke my writer's block with this one, and the last two should be posted pretty soon! 
> 
> This chapter is a bit on the short end, but it's really to set up the next chapter. Enjoy!

“Greg! Happy St. Wiggin’s Day!!! ... Hello? ... Oh no did I get the time difference wrong again?”

Greg could barely comprehend what was happening as he climbed out of bed, clutching the phone to ear with one hand and rubbing the sleep from his eyes with the other.

“Hmm? No no no, it’s fine. It’s so good to hear your voice.”

Five months ago, Katie and Portia had approached Greg with an assignment to do some international human interest pieces. Portia was working on starting a charitable foundation and Katie figured the producing experience would be invaluable. Greg, realizing how important of an opportunity this would be for Katie’s career, approved the assignment despite Carol’s begging and pleading to not let her baby go overseas. Katie, Portia, and Wayne were then off shortly after Greg’s approval, and things at The Breakdown slowed down considerably as they struggled without three members of the staff being there full time.

So for the past five months, Greg was not only missing his best producer, but also his best friend. They kept in touch as frequently as they could, but the demands on Katie for her travel, the lack of reliable phone service or internet, and the time differences often made it difficult to communicate. When they were able to communicate though, it was usually the highlight of Greg’s day, and he would hang on her every word as she told him about the adventures she and Portia had gone on since the last spoke. When they weren’t able to communicate, he would have to rely on the taped piece she and Portia would send back for the show. Katie was almost never actually on camera of course, but he knew she was there and he loved getting little glimpses of what her experience must be like. Then, when they would be able to talk for longer than a couple minutes, he would ask her about her experience, and would try to connect the dots to get a more full picture of her travels. As the months went on, their time between phone calls would get longer and longer, and he quickly found that he was missing everything about Katie more and more, and was slowly becoming more and more determined to finally ask her on a date when she returned. Well, if he could actually buck up the courage and do so.

“How are you?” she asked, and he made his way to the sink to get himself a glass of water to help him wake up.

“I’m good. You know, same ol’ stuff going on around here. How are you doing?”

“I’m wonderful,” and with that she was catching him up on her trip since they had spoken a few weeks ago. Their actual journalism assignment was finally winding down and they would be returning in a few weeks. This meant that there was less actual reporting work to do, so Portia used the time to take different business meetings to set up the new charitable org. In addition to the meetings, Portia was also attending or setting up galas in the towns where he business meetings were held in order to attract big donors and start fundraising for the organization. Katie and Wayne were often invited along to everything, which Katie seemed excited about not only because it was often a fun and glamorous time, but also because it provided amazing networking opportunities.

“The hobnobbing has really kicked it up a notch!” she said as she described their stop over in Stuttgart, where she got to see Diana St. Tropez again. Katie told Greg about how Diana had specifically taken some time out of her busy schedule to meet with Katie and praise her mentee for her work on Portia’s international project. "I can't believe all the nice things she said about me," Katie said, thrilled about how well the meeting had gone.

"Well of course she did, you're doing brilliant work," he praised her, feeling extremely proud of the great work she had been doing, not only in producing the pieces for The Breakdown, but also managing (and practically handling) Portia's often erratic decision making when it came to the many different choices they needed to make during the trip.

"Aww, Greg, you're making me blush!"

"Hey, I'm just being honest. You're probably going to be my boss when you get back," he joked, but actually did think she deserved it.

“Oh please," she said, and he could've sworn she was rolling her eyes. "So what are your plans for St. Wiggin’s Day? I’m so sorry again that I can’t be there this year,” she said, sadly. He shook his head, and then realized she couldn’t see him.

“Oh no worries at all of course,” he said quickly, making sure she didn’t feel bad, since obviously it was out of her control at this point. “I’ll actually be spending the day with Carol and Dave. Apparently she went to check on your apartment last week and while she was there, made sure she grabbed the decorations. I told her that she really didn’t have to worry about any of this, but she said you had mentioned that I love this holiday, which is really sweet. It’s nice that the Wendelson’s are always taking care of me,” he laughed, and he could hear Katie chuckle on the line.

“Someone’s got to, Gregorious!” 

And she was right. Since Carol’s only child was on the other side of the world, Carol had needed to redirect her mothering energy somewhere else, which naturally fell to Greg, who was basically family-less in the States. It turned out that Greg actually loved the attention Carol gave him all of the time, and she was often a (surprisingly) useful sounding board whenever a problem came up at work. Spending time with Carol was also a really good distraction for how bored and lonely he was without Katie being around all the time. Anyone else probably would’ve tried their hand at dating to solve this type of problem, but instead Greg wanted to hang out with his crush’s mom, which occasionally crossed his mind. He admittedly felt a little embarrassed about just how smitten he was with Katie that he wasn't even considering dating anyone else, and would rather spend time with who he hoped would be his future mother-in-law, if he was being honest with himself.

Carol was also clearly thinking along the same lines, because attention from Carol came with a price: she was constantly trying to figure out how to get Katie and Greg together as soon as Katie returned. Carol had most certainly  
not forgotten that Greg had feelings for her daughter, and used almost every opportunity to remind him of this fact. While Greg was lowkey on the same wavelength as Carol about trying to be with Katie when she got back, he was too much of a coward to admit it to her outright. Instead, he often just let her try to meddle without either encouraging or discouraging her, except if he realized that Carol's plotting meant that she was going to relay his feelings back to Katie before she got back. He wasn’t certain how he was going to tell her he had feelings for her, but he definitely wanted to do it in person, and he only wanted it to come from him. 

“I am so glad you won’t be alone today,” Katie said, sounding relieved. "I know how important this is to you." He smiled, feeling touched that she was worried.

“I appreciate that, Katie. I’m sure it’ll be really nice. Your mom sounds confused about it, but excited nonetheless.”

“That’s Carol Wendelson for you! She’s not going to try to make crumb fairy is she?” He laughed.

“No, I insisted we do store-bought this year, since either she would mess it up, which I wouldn't want her to feel bad about. Or she would get it right, and I certainly couldn’t let her beat you in that respect,” he teased and she groaned.

“Ugh, good idea. Knowing her she’d actually probably get it right on the first try. Or never admit that she had actually been working on it all week and show up with a perfect one. Either way, I can't let her beat me to the punch!” They both laughed, about Carol slaving away at crumb fairy to get it perfect and how Katie's usual competitive side was kicking in over something as silly as Greg's favorite dish.

“I really miss you,” he muttered without realizing it. He coughed to in a sad attempt to try to cover it up.

“What was that?” Katie asked. “The sound cut out for a second.” Greg sighed in relief and quickly corrected himself.

“We all really miss having you around,” he amended, and he could practically hear Katie’s smile over the phone.

“I miss all of you so much, too! Luckily we only have a few more weeks until we get back. Hold on a sec, Portia's here.” she said, and then he heard Portia say something in the background. “Crap, I have to go, Mark’s here!”

Greg immediately felt his stomach drop at Katie's words and the tone in her voice.

“Who’s Mark?” he tried to ask casually.

Katie giggled and said, “you’ll find out in a couple weeks, actually!” She sounded more excited than he was expecting and he really started to get a bad feeling about this. All he could say in response was:

“Oh?”

“Yep!" she teased, then quickly apologized, "I'm so sorry I gotta cut our call so short! I hope you have a wonderful St. Wiggin’s Day! Hug my mom for me!”

“Sure thing,” he said, not wanting the call to end. “We’ll talk soon, right?” he asked, trying not to sound too pathetic.

“Hopefully, or I’ll at least be home in a couple weeks anyways!”

“Right,” he said. “Well, have fun and, uh, be safe!” He said, and he heard her laugh again.

“Wow, my mom is really rubbing off on you, isn't she. I'll be safe! Bye, Greg!"

"Bye, Katie."

And just like that, the call was over, and Greg was stuck standing in his kitchen, not really sure what to think about the last minute of the call. He looked at the clock and frowned when he realized it was still several hours until he normally would wake up, since he was now going to be stuck awake thinking about only one thing:

Who the hell was Mark?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Not to be a tease, but the next chapter is gonna get kind of angsty, and is the one I'm probably most excited about!


	4. 2020

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Heads up, this is a long one, but it's the chapter that everything has kind of been building to! Enjoy :)

Greg had almost forgotten what day it was when he first woke up to knocking on he door.  He’d passed out on the couch the night before, getting surprisingly drunk on a bottle of red wine as he weighed the pros and cons of the decision he had to make by the end of the weekend.

He didn’t expect Carol to be at the door, but he shouldn’t have been all that surprised, since she had been around a lot lately.

“Carol, what are you doing here?”

“Wow, Greg, did I just wake you?” she scolded.  “It’s almost noon!  I come bearing that holiday jelly you love so much.”

Greg rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s that St. Warren’s Day you always celebrate!” Carol said, exasperated as she made her way into his kitchen. He sighed.

“Aww, Carol, I wasn’t really even planning on celebrating this year...”

“Oh come on, because Katie still won’t speak to you?” Greg winced. “That’s no reason to skip your favorite holiday!  That’s why I’m here.  I’m sick of seeing you all down in the dumps.”

With that, Carol was starting to straighten up his apartment without any warning.  He shrugged, used to Carol’s mothering at this point, and excused himself to go wash up and get dressed. Carol had really ramped up her mothering lately.  Katie hadn’t spoken a word to him outside of her work obligations in almost seven weeks (not that Greg was counting) and since then he and Carol had gotten even closer.

When Katie returned from her international assignment, she had shown up with a new boyfriend, the mysterious Mark, much to everyone’s shock.  Well, not really Greg’s shock.  He had a feeling after their conversation that she had met someone.  She had sounded way too excited at the end of that call for it to be just some friend she had made.  

Mark was a really handsome French filmmaker who they had run into when their assignment had taken them to West Africa.  He was working on a documentary about the story they were producing, and so they had all teamed up and were able to share footage and stories, and with a few different phone calls with higher ups at the network, were able to essentially treat the piece for The Breakdown as an introduction to the story, and ad for Mark’s documentary.  Not only did the group figure out that this a great way to get the story to the world through different avenues, but in the meantime Katie and Mark had also really hit it off, and soon he had found ways to meet them at the rest of their stops.  Apparently, Katie found this flattering, and the pair became more and more inseparable as the trip went on.  It even worked out that, when The Breakdown crew was due to return to the States, he would also need to be there to shop the movie around and begin to do press.  All of this felt like fate to Katie, though Greg and Carol were both skeptical.

Carol didn’t like Mark from the moment she found out about him, and much to Katie’s frustration, made that very clear.  

“She wasn’t supposed to return with a boyfriend,” Carol had told Greg one night during their little dinners, which had started while Katie was over seas and had continued even after Katie had returned.  “She was supposed to realize how much she missed you while she was gone, and you two were supposed to fall in love and make me beautiful British grand-babies!”

Carol, much to Greg’s relief, did not tell Katie any of this however, and instead made up other excuses for why she wasn’t fond of Mark.  As time wore on and Katie and Mark got more and more serious, Carol was having a harder and harder time justifying her dislike for Mark without blowing Greg’s cover.  The worst excuse Carol had for not liking Mark was that he was “just too attractive,” which Katie took as her mother thinking she wasn’t pretty enough for Mark, which of course lead to them not speaking to each other for almost a week.  Greg luckily worked to mend that before it got out of hand.

Meanwhile, Greg was trying to be the cool, supportive friend who wasn’t at all jealous or suspicious of Mark.  Greg always made sure to put on a happy face around the couple and pretended like he and Mark were becoming friends, even though Mark seemed to tell from the moment he met Greg that Greg wanted to be more than just friends with Katie.  At the same time, Greg couldn’t help but feel like it was fishy that this guy was ready to upend his whole life to follow Katie on her assignment, and that the timing just happened to work out in his favor that he could come to America and also still date a girl who had media connections.  Greg couldn’t help but feel like Mark was using Katie, but he couldn’t tell Katie any of this, because she seemed so happy with Mark, and  he didn’t want to upset her.  He also wondered just how much of his suspicious feelings were because he was jealous, and the last thing he wanted to do was get in the way of Katie’s happiness because of his own selfish reasons.

And then they announced their engagement. 

\---

It had been just like any other Wednesday morning in the office until Carol had come running into his office before the pitch meeting. 

“Greg!  Listen, we need to talk before-”

“I can’t Carol, I’m already running late for the meeting.  So are you, by the way.”

“Yes, because I came to find you!” she said, following him out of his office as they made their way to the conference room.  “We really should talk first-”

“I’m not letting you pitch the story about Angie’s niece, I don’t know how many times I have to tell you no,”  he said, starting to get frustrated.

“Greg it’s not about that!  Just listen-” but she was cut off by Greg stopping dead in his tracks before entering the conference room.  Through the windows he could see everyone surrounding Katie and chatting excitedly, and his eyes went straight to the impossible-to-miss, massive diamond ring on her finger.

“Oh Greg,” Carol whispered behind him as he stood still, trying to recover from the shock and keep it together.  Meanwhile, Katie had finally noticed them in the doorway and was up out of her seat to show him.

“I’m engaged!” she practically shrieked and hugged him while everyone in the conference room cheered.  Greg, feeling like he was going to be sick, used the moment where she couldn’t see his face to try to pull himself together and fake a smile when she pulled away.

“That’s so great, Katie.  Congratulations!”  He managed to get out without sounding too devastated, but Katie clearly had picked up that something was wrong, and squinted at him.  Desperate to get away, he moved towards the front of the room and started to fiddle with his laptop to get the meeting going. Everyone then calmed down and he was able to run the meeting with almost no other distractions, aside from Katie staring him down the whole time trying to figure out what was happening.

He had hoped to escape to his office and have a few moments to himself after the meeting, but Katie was right on his tail and followed him in.

“Okay, what was  _that_?” She demanded.  He took a deep breath and messed with something on his desk, not willing to look at her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied pretty obviously, and she scoffed and he could her behind him move closer into his office.

“I tell you that I’m  _engaged_  and you act like someone died,” she said angrily.  He closed his eyes and braced himself for what was either going to be a fight, or him finally admitting his feelings for her, or something else equally terrible.  He turned around and immediately felt like an ass when he saw the hurt look on her face.

“Listen, Katie, I need to explain-”

“Oh my god, my mom put you up to this didn’t she?”

Greg had not expected that accusation at all, and took a second to rework the speech he was trying to craft in his head.

“No, Katie, that’s not it-”

“It is, isn’t it!”  She yelled, completely ignoring Greg and throwing her arms up in the air in frustration.  “She hasn’t liked Mark from day one for some unknown reason, and now she’s got you on her side about this hasn’t she?”

“No!  Carol has nothing-”

“I can’t believe this,” she interrupted, shaking her head.  “You were probably the one person I was most excited to tell this to, and you take my mom’s side about this?!  I thought you were  _my_  best friend, not Carol’s!  How could you?!”

“Katie, please it’s not like that-”

“Whatever,” she said as she made her way to the door, not wanting to hear another word he said.  “Screw you, Greg.”

\---

And now, exactly 47 days later (Greg definitely hadn’t been counting), Katie still was not speaking to Greg outside of their work obligations.  For a while after their fight, Katie had also not spoken to Carol, furious that her own mother was seemingly working against her new fiancé.  Eventually, after Carol’s relentless efforts to apologize and get Katie to speak to her again (and with the secret help of Greg, who didn’t want Katie and Carol to make a mistake they would regret forever), Katie realized that she didn’t want to be fighting with her mom as they approached the wedding, and they made up.  Once Carol was back in the fold, she tried to get Katie to talk to Greg again too, but apparently Katie had drawn the line and adamantly planned on never speaking to Greg again.

So Greg had definitely not planned on celebrating St. Wiggin’s Day this year, and was instead planning to get quite drunk, alone in his apartment, until he inevitably fell asleep on the couch trying to understand American football.  But now that Carol was here, it seemed he had no choice but to play along until she went home.  

He finished getting dressed and made his way back into the living room, where he noticed Carol reading a paper on his coffee table.

“Carol, don’t read that!”

“What is this?” she asked, upset.  He frowned, realizing she had clearly managed to read all of it while he wasn’t in the room.  “Are you leaving The Breakdown?”

He didn’t know what to say for a moment and scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“I don’t know,” he responded simply.  Carol looked hurt.

“I don’t understand.”  He sighed, and began to explain.

“I got a job offer about a week ago for a primetime executive producer slot at MMN.  It’s a pretty big promotion and would pay really well, but...” he paused, realizing the weight of the rest of the sentence, “I’d have to move to L.A.”

Carol gasped.  “L.A.?!”

“Look, I have the rest of the weekend to decide, and I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

“But you’re seriously considering it, aren’t you.”

Greg didn’t say anything, and Carol frowned at him.

“This isn’t because...” she didn’t finish the sentence, but he knew exactly what she was going to say.

“No, Carol-” he started, but she cut him off, wagging her finger at him.

“Don’t try to lie to me, mister.” she said and she came over to him and surprised him with a hug.  “I’m proud of you for getting this offer, kiddo.  But if you take the job because of what happened, I really think you’ll regret it in the long run.”

“Listen, that... whole thing... has nothing to do with this.  Well, okay it doesn’t have  _everything_  to do with this, I promise.  It really is a good offer,” he said, almost sounding like he was trying to make himself believe his own lie.  “Just please don’t tell Katie about this.  Especially because I really haven’t made a decision yet.”

Carol promised she wouldn’t say anything, and the two proceeded to share a few bites of crumb fairy and talked about other things.  Greg was relieved when the conversation almost strayed towards the wedding planning, but Carol realized her mistake and quickly changed the subject to brag about her most recent brunch with Ray Liotta.  Greg couldn’t help but feel terrible deep down during their whole conversation.  The mix of guilt and sadness about the fact that he might actually leave the show was starting to eat away at him, and Carol, knowing Greg so well at this point, picked up on his mood and made up an excuse about why she needed to head home.  He wished her a good night and tried ignore the sad (but suspiciously determined) look on her face as he walked her out.

Finally alone, he grabbed a beer out of the fridge and went back to his scheduled moping, hiding the offer letter under an old magazine so he didn’t have to stare at it all night.  

He was just getting into a what he believed was called a “period” of American football and onto his fourth beer when someone started pounding on his door.

“GREGORIOUS WALSH.  I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE.”

Greg sighed and rubbed his face.  He had been delusional in thinking that Carol wouldn’t call Katie the moment she got to her car.  He slowly got up and made his way to the door, dreading what was about to happen.  He opened the door to see a particularly grumpy Katie Wendelson with her hands on her hips, looking a little terrifying.  She pushed past him, threw her purse on his counter, and quickly turned back to him.

“What the hell, Greg?!”  He closed the door and leaned against it, already exhausted by all of this.

“I told your mother not to say anything-”

“You’re just going to leave and not tell anyone!?”

“I haven’t made up my mind yet!” He yelled back, and Katie abruptly stopped herself from saying whatever it was she was about to say.  They both stood there for a second in silence, each realizing that they hadn’t actually spoken to each other in weeks.  Greg, feeling uncomfortable and a little trapped, ran his hand through his hair and then moved further into his apartment.  Katie watched him as he made his way towards the kitchen counter to pick his beer back up.  That’s when she noticed the crumb fairy Carol had brought was still on the counter, and she looked startled for a moment.

“Oh.  Is it...?”

“Yeah,” he said simply, and he could tell from the look on her face that she immediately felt terrible that she had forgotten about St. Wiggin’s Day this year.  Katie was at a loss for words for a moment, but then she decided to get back to why she was in his apartment in the first place.

“So you just... weren’t going to tell me,” she accused and he rolled his eyes.

“Katie, you haven’t said a word to me in 47 days.  When exactly was I going to get the chance to tell you?” he asked, angrily.  She looked pretty surprised that he knew just how many days it had been since their fight, but the moment quickly passed.

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t been such a jerk about my engagement, you would’ve had the chance to,” she said, clearly airing a grievance that had been bottled up for the past couple months.  He sighed and set his beer back down.

“You’re right.”

“I mean it’s not like - Wait what?”

She hadn’t been expecting him to give in so easily and had clearly been ready to fight him some more on it.  Greg shook his head and continued.

“I should’ve been more excited for you.  Or at least pretended to be.  I know how important it is to you, and how much you love Mark, and I’m sorry I acted so selfishly.”

Katie was stunned, but also confused.

“Selfishly?” 

Greg raised an eyebrow at this.  “Wait, do you still think I was acting that way because I was plotting with Carol?”

“Yeah... isn’t that what that was?” Katie asked quietly, feeling completely lost.  Greg groaned, realizing he was going to have to explain everything now.

He motioned for her to sit down at the table and then he started to pace.

“Oh, God.  Okay, here’s the thing.  It’s not that I don’t like Mark.  No, you know what?  That’s not entirely true, since I do think there’s something pretty shady about a guy who follows a girl all over the world who just happens to be an amazing journalist in the exact industry he just happens to need connections in...”  Katie’s made her “angry face” at Greg’s little tangent that he was very used to at this point (he also caught her smirk a little when he praised her, but chose to move on). “But that’s not my point.”

He was still pacing, but now holding is forehead as he tried to figure out the best way to just get it all out, because there was certainly no going back now.

“I was jealous,” Greg said quietly, part of him hoping she wouldn’t even hear him and he could maybe come up with a different excuse.  But he wasn’t that lucky.

“Jealous?  I don’t understand...” he stopped pacing and blinked at her.  Did she really have no clue?  He thought he had been so obvious about his feelings, but maybe it was another one of those things that he had to chalk up to the differences between their cultures.

“Katie, why do you think I reacted the way I did?”

“I don’t know, I thought you were in cahoots with my mom!”

“But why do you think your mother didn’t like Mark in the first place?”

“I thought she just didn’t approve of him like she doesn’t approve of most of my boyfriends...”

“Okay, but you really haven’t put together why I’ve been moping around for the past seven weeks?”

“Well yeah, because we were fighting!”

Katie still looked completely lost, and Greg was starting to get a little frustrated.

“Katie, why do you think I’m looking to take a job across the country?” He stared at her in disbelief, and she just looked at him in confusion. 

“I don’t-”

“Oh good Lord, Katie, it’s because I’m in love with you!” Greg finally admitted out of frustration.  She didn’t say anything.  He was afraid to look at her and see her reaction, and instead just decided to continue to explain himself.  “Katie.  I’ve been in love with you since... before you had even left for your trip.  While you were gone, I had basically resolved to finally tell you or ask you on a date or something.  But then you showed up with Mark, and I obviously couldn’t say anything at that point.  I figured he was just some guy you had met on your trip and soon enough you both would get past that honeymoon phase of your relationship now that you were settled down back in the States, break up, and then I could finally tell you how I feel.”

He paused and finally looked at her, and she was staring at him with her jaw dropped.  He sighed and continued.

“That’s why Carol didn’t like Mark, by the way.  She knew I had feelings for you, long before I even knew, and while you were away she spent the whole time trying to basically concoct a plan where I would sweep you off your feet and we would run off together,” he laughed sadly at that.  “Well, not ‘run off’ probably... I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have let that happen, but you know what I mean.  Anyways, the morning you were going to announce your engagement, she tried to give me a heads up first, but I wasn’t listening to her.  So, when we got to the conference room, everything sort of just happened all at once and I barely even knew what was happening or how to react.”

Greg started to pace again as he remembered their fight.

“Of course, you noticed that something was wrong and I was going to try to just play it off as something else, because I really was so glad that you had found the person you wanted to spend your life with.  But before I could explain myself to you, you... rightfully so, I might add... got upset with me about acting like a jerk.  And you kept thinking it was because I had been swayed by your mom, and I was too much of a coward to actually try to correct you about why exactly I reacted the way I did.  So we haven’t spoken in seven weeks, and it’s all my fault, and I’m sorry.”

Greg finally sat down at the table and Katie stared at him for a moment, still processing everything he had just said.  Finally, she spoke up.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” she asked.  He smiled sadly at her.

“A few reasons... Because I still felt bad that I hurt you on such an important day for you.  Because I felt embarrassed about the whole thing, and it didn’t feel like a good idea to tell you how I felt, especially because you were engaged.  And because of that, I knew that if I told you and you obviously chose to stay with your fiancé over me, it would probably break me and also be the end of our friendship entirely.”

“So... why are you admitting all of this me now?” 

He paused, not quite knowing the answer to this question.

“Well, I guess now I can take this job, move to L.A., and neither of us will have to worry about any of this anymore.” She gasped at this.

“You’re still thinking about taking the job?!” Katie yelled and he just shrugged.

“Katie, we haven’t spoken in months and I’m  _still_  not over my feelings for you,” he admitted, and he noticed her start to tear up.  “I think it’s only fair that I go.  It’s a really good opportunity, not only as a promotion, but also for me to finally move on from my feelings for you.  Plus, if I leave The Breakdown, you can finally take over my job, which is a position you should’ve taken a long time ago.”  He paused and took a deep breath before admitting one more thing.  “I just.  I don’t think I can watch you marry someone else.  And I know that’s not at all fair to you, and I’m so sorry, but it’s the truth.”

Now Katie was fully crying, and Greg felt worse than he could’ve ever anticipated.

“Oh god, Katie, please don’t cry,” he begged, getting up from his chair and kneeling in front of her, taking her hands in his.  “This is all my fault and I promise I’m trying to find a way to make it right-” but she was shaking her head.

“Greg, stop apologizing!” she said through her tears.  “First of all, you don’t have to apologize for any of this.  If I had known...” she started to get choked up, and took a second to pull herself together.  “Second, please don’t take that job because of this, because there’s something really important you don’t know yet,” she said quietly.  Greg furrowed his brow in confusion, and she started to tear up again.

“Mark and I called off our engagement last week.”

Greg felt like the whole world had stopped turning.  _What was she talking about?  They weren’t engaged?  How was that possible?_ He was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost didn’t even notice that she had started speaking again.

“Ever since we fought, or I guess I yelled at you and didn’t let you get a word in to explain yourself... Anyways, I’ve been kind of... unsettled about this whole thing, and I really didn’t know why.  At first I thought it was just because you were my best friend and we were fighting and I didn’t really understand why I was mad, but I was.  As the weeks went by though, I was less actually angry with you, but I was still not feeling great about marrying Mark for some reason.  Every time I sat down to plan anything wedding-related, I felt this awful feeling in my stomach.  I thought it was just nerves or anxiety or something.  Then, about a week and a half ago, my mom, who had been very good about not mentioning your name around me, let it slip that you were going on a date that night.”

Greg raised his eyebrows and had to stop himself from laughing.  He had almost completely forgotten about the date he had gone on in a sad attempt to try to move on.  Needless to say, the girl had ditched him before the entree had even been served and nothing had come of it.

“Well, when I heard that, I kinda... lost it a little.  I was basically interrogating everyone in the office for every little detail about who you were seeing, where you were going, etc.  It wasn’t until I saw Mark later that night that I realized I had been acting like a crazy person all day, and then it hit me that I was completely jealous of the fact that you were dating someone.”

This time, it was Greg’s jaw that was dropped.  He must be dreaming... 

“I didn’t sleep that whole night, and I called off the engagement the next day. I just haven’t gotten around to telling anyone yet because I’ve been super embarrassed about the whole thing and how stupid I’ve been acting.  My mom has been asking me where my ring is, and I made up some dumb excuse about how it needed to be resized.  I’ve felt like such an idiot, breaking off my engagement to this guy who wanted to marry me but who was clearly way out of my league...”

Katie sniffled, still crying quite a bit.  Greg, staring at Katie’s hands in his, shook his head and Katie’s words, but she didn’t notice as she continued on.

“But, there was just no possible way I could marry Mark, when I still had feelings for my best friend.”

He finally looked up at her, and she was still crying, but smiling this time.  Without even thinking, he rose to his feet, pulled her up out of her chair, and kissed her like there was no tomorrow.

Kissing Katie was like nothing he could’ve ever imagined.  Greg felt like his whole body was buzzing.  It was electric, intense, passionate, and everything he could’ve ever hoped for.  Well, except for the fact that she had been crying moments before.

When they finally broke apart, she rested her forehead against his.  Neither of them said anything for a few moments as he wiped her tears away.  Her arms were wrapped around his neck and she could feel her fingers playing with his hair.

“This is all a dream, right?” he whispered, not believing that this could possibly be happening.  Katie laughed at this.

“Oh god, I hope not,” she replied.  He laughed too and kissed her again, briefly, and then he remembered something she had said.

“You  _still_  had feelings for me?” He asked, and she blushed.

“Buddy, I’ve been crushing on you since before my mom started interning at The Breakdown.”

“What?!”

“Dude, do you not know how hot you are, with your whole... suave British thing?  I had  _such_  a crush on you when I first started working at The Breakdown.  Then my mom called me out on it a couple of times when she started working at MMN, and so I tried to keep a low profile about it.  But then we started getting closer and closer as friends, and then we  _almost kissed_ that one time and I kinda never got over it.”  Greg, ecstatic at this new information, kissed her again.  “And then a couple years ago, when we were celebrating St. Wiggin’s Day together I could’ve  _sworn_  you were going to make a move, but when nothing happened I figured you just weren’t into me the way I was into you.”

“Oh god, I definitely was going to, but I chickened out!” he said, exasperated. Katie giggled.

“Wow, we’re a couple of big idiots aren’t we?” she teased, resting her read on his shoulder has he enveloped her into a hug.

“We definitely are.”  She looked up at him and smiled.

“You’re not taking that job now, right?”

“Hell no.  I’ll have to figure out a way to get them to move that primetime show moved to our offices or something.”  Katie pouted at this.

“But you wouldn’t be working at The Breakdown anymore!”  He laughed.

“Exactly.  Not only will it be easier for us to date when I’m not your superior anymore, but you can also get the promotion you deserve.”  He said, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.  This time, she kissed him in excitement.

“Happy St. Wiggin’s Day, Gregorious.”

“Happy St. Wiggin’s Day, Katherine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! One more short chapter will follow this!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! There are more chapters to come!


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